You Are My Omega - Chapter 36

Xu Shijiu still hadn’t received any kind of explanation.

Lin Xinyi’s behavior was filled with guilt. The way she kept avoiding eye contact and hiding things made it impossible for Xu Shijiu not to overthink, even if she tried to stay calm.

Lin Xinyi had thought she was doing a good job keeping her secret from Xu Shijiu. She never realized that her cover-up was full of obvious cracks.

Because she believed her acting was convincing, she continued tutoring Xu Shijiu like usual and didn’t feel that anything was wrong. She forced herself to suppress the guilt and kept repeating to herself that it was better for Xu Shijiu not to know. She thought hiding it would save her the worry.

That was how Lin Xinyi saw it, but she never stopped to think about how Xu Shijiu felt.

Xu Manyue watched as the distance between Xu Shijiu and Lin Xinyi grew day by day. Xu Shijiu was clearly down and often quiet, but Lin Xinyi didn’t seem to notice at all. She was completely unaware, completely indifferent.

Seeing them both like this made Xu Manyue feel frustrated.

“What’s going on with Xiaojiu and Xinyi?” Liu Lingyan noticed it too. She rested a hand gently on her growing belly, leaning sleepily against Xu Manyue’s chest, her eyes half-closed but trying to stay awake.

“Xinyi’s hiding something from Xiaojiu. Xiaojiu is upset about it. But it seems like Xinyi hasn’t noticed anything at all,” Xu Manyue replied. She had originally wanted to ask Liu Lingyan for advice, but seeing how tired she looked, curled up in her arms, she couldn’t bear to make her worry.

Just as expected, Liu Lingyan’s eyes filled with concern. She looked up at Xu Manyue, about to speak, but Xu Manyue lightly pressed a finger to her lips. Liu Lingyan blinked in surprise, only to see Xu Manyue smile gently.

“You don’t need to worry about this. I’ll talk to them myself.”

“Do you already have a plan?” Liu Lingyan asked, still a little worried. She knew what Xu Manyue was like. Her emotional intelligence could be unpredictable. Sometimes sharp, sometimes clumsy. What if her solution didn’t help at all?

“Not yet,” Xu Manyue admitted, and her voice turned a little more firm. “But you don’t need to get involved. You just need to rest and take care of yourself.”

Liu Lingyan was further along in her pregnancy now, and her symptoms were getting stronger, especially the fatigue.

She was barely awake during the day and always seemed exhausted no matter how much she slept. The whole situation had worried them all deeply. Xu Manyue even took her to the hospital, where the doctors repeatedly reassured them that everything was fine.

“Alright then, if you insist, I won’t step in for now,” Liu Lingyan said, giving in quickly. She paused for a moment. “But if it really becomes too much, you have to come to me for help.”

Both Lin Xinyi and Xu Shijiu were stubborn by nature. Once they made up their minds, it was hard to change them. Especially with Xu Shijiu, whose thoughts and feelings were difficult to read. When she got hurt, it often hurt more than anyone expected.

Xu Manyue sounded confident, but whether she could actually resolve things smoothly was another matter entirely.

“I know,” Xu Manyue nodded. If it came to it, she would definitely ask Liu Lingyan for help.

“By the way, my father just got back from overseas. We might need to go meet him soon,” Liu Lingyan said, remembering the message she had received just the day before.

“Your father’s back?” Xu Manyue tensed up immediately. The news had come so suddenly. “When are we supposed to meet him?”

“Probably tomorrow or the day after.” Liu Lingyan couldn’t help but laugh when she saw how nervous Xu Manyue looked. The mighty head of the Xu family, someone who had met countless high-powered CEOs, was now nervous about meeting her father.

“That soon?” Xu Manyue was visibly uneasy. Liu Lingyan laughed as she tried to calm her down.

“Don’t worry. My father’s easy to talk to. And he won’t be staying long.”

“What does he do?” Xu Manyue noticed a brief moment of coldness in Liu Lingyan’s eyes. She found it strange. Did Liu Lingyan not get along with her father?

“He works in international trade and lives abroad, so we don’t have a very close relationship,” Liu Lingyan replied calmly. She wasn’t hiding anything. Things were different now. In the past, they hadn’t been legally bound. But now, they were legally married, a pair of wives recognized by law.

“I see.” Xu Manyue nodded. In that sense, the two of them were quite similar.

Xu Manyue’s father wasn’t a businessman. He was a pianist, but he traveled constantly around the world. They rarely saw each other, and she felt little emotional connection to him.

Later, Xu Manyue went to talk to Lin Xinyi.

Meanwhile, Xu Shijiu took the opportunity while they were out of the house to go speak with her sister-in-law.

She had wanted to talk to her for a while. But something always came up, or her own mood had been too messed up by everything that had happened lately. She hadn’t had the energy or chance until now.

Liu Lingyan was a little surprised that Xu Shijiu came to find her. But from the look on her face, it was obvious something important was weighing on her mind. Liu Lingyan even went to wash her face to help herself stay awake.

By the time she sat on the sofa, Xu Shijiu had already wheeled herself to the opposite side of the room. One of them was at one end, the other at the other, with a long space between them.

“Sister-in-law, how are you feeling lately?” Xu Shijiu felt a little awkward, but she didn’t know how else to approach. Still, her tone was full of concern.

“Other than being a little too sleepy all the time, everything’s fine,” Liu Lingyan replied with a soft smile, not moving to close the distance between them. She didn’t say much else, keeping the atmosphere calm.

Her gentle and composed presence helped Xu Shijiu settle down.

“Sister-in-law, there’s something I want to tell you.”

“Alright. I’m here to listen, Xiaojiu,” Liu Lingyan said seriously. Her attitude of treating her as an equal made Xu Shijiu feel respected and understood.

“Has my sister ever told you anything about our mother?”

“No.”

That was the answer Liu Lingyan had expected. She quietly hoped Xu Shijiu would continue, because she had always been curious. Every time the topic of their mother had come up, she had noticed something strange in Xu Manyue’s expression.

Sometimes…

Liu Lingyan had felt that Xu Manyue’s smile seemed strained and unnatural. Her eyes looked like they were silently crying out for help, begging her to notice. But the moment she looked closer, all those feelings vanished as if they had only been in her imagination. Xu Manyue returned to being the calm and composed version of herself.

That feeling unsettled Liu Lingyan deeply. And yet, there was nothing she could do. Xu Manyue was like a flawless shield, impossible to penetrate. No matter how she tried to test her, not a single crack appeared.

“As I thought,” Xu Shijiu sighed and gently touched her legs. “I was there when the car accident happened. The one that took our mother’s life. I survived, but I lost the use of my legs.”

That day marked the end for their mother, devastation for Xu Shijiu, torment for Xu Manyue, and for the Xu family—already scattered and fragile—what did it mean for them? Xu Shijiu still didn’t know.

She remembered clearly. It was the day before her sister’s birthday.

Because their father had to travel for work, and she had stubbornly begged their mother not to leave her behind, their mother had no choice but to call the school and excuse her from class. She took Xu Shijiu with her. Their original plan was to catch a flight back the next day, just in time for Xu Manyue’s birthday party.

If the business trip hadn’t been urgent, their mother would never have left. No one had expected the flight to be delayed. Their carefully planned schedule fell apart completely.

Holding her younger daughter’s hand while staring anxiously at the time ticking away on her wristwatch, their mother could do nothing but worry helplessly. There was nothing she could do about a delayed flight.

“Mom, don’t worry. Just call Jie and tell her. She’ll understand,” young Xu Shijiu said gently, trying to comfort her mother who was pacing and stressed. Her voice was calm, but in her hand she held tightly onto the birthday gift she had chosen with care for her sister.

She had taken a long time picking it out, hoping her sister would like it.

Last year, when she had given her a gift, her sister hadn’t seemed pleased. She hadn’t even looked at it and had just set it aside with the other presents. She never saw her sister take it out again.

“Mom can’t reach her,” their mother said with a disappointed sigh, looking down at the phone. She knew her older daughter had been so looking forward to this day, and now she was letting her down.

“Then call Uncle the butler. He can pass the message to Jie,” Xu Shijiu suggested with a sigh of her own.

“You’re right. Thank you for the idea, Xiaojiu!” Her mother brightened instantly and began dialing again.

Meanwhile, little Xu Shijiu stared down at the gift she had carefully protected all day. She thought of how her sister never smiled when she saw her and felt her excitement start to fade. If her sister didn’t like her, she probably wouldn’t like the gift either.

But then…

“Mom, can I say this gift is from you? That it’s something you picked out to give Jie?” Xu Shijiu thought she had found the perfect solution. Her sister didn’t like her, but she loved their mother. If she believed the gift was from their mother, she might actually like it.

“That might…” Their mother’s smile faded a little, and her expression grew uncertain. “It might not work.”

“Why not? I’ve seen Jie holding the bookmark you gave her, just staring at it. When I tried to touch it, she wouldn’t even let me. She treasures it.”

Xu Shijiu didn’t understand why their mother still thought her sister disliked her. That wasn’t true. She was sure of it.

Her mother looked into her daughter’s eyes, so full of certainty and belief, and for a moment, something inside her softened. Maybe… maybe Xiaojiu was right.

She had already made up her mind. When they got back, she would sit down and have a proper talk with her older daughter.

But in the end, there was no chance to do that.

Everything ended before she could.

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